How To Follow Through With Your Goals In 2022

Following through with your goals is much different in 2022 than it was three years ago. The reason being is that you aren’t as socially connected to others in your circle of friends and colleagues as you were before.?

Not having that accountability from friends and colleagues leaves you to be the one to motivate and drive the direction of your goals.

Why You Depend On Social Circles To Follow Through With Your Goals

When you’re in the presence of others, and I’m talking in-person and not in an online conference call, you are seen by others. And when physically seen, it’s hard to hide that you aren’t on track with your goals. Your non-verbal communication reveals that you haven’t been sticking to your diet, getting up an hour earlier, or making those sales calls.?

So, in the presence of others, you tend to keep to your word, or your commitment to your goals, and follow through with them because you don’t want to look bad. The idea of falling back on your promise to achieve your goal has you seeing yourself as a quitter, or that you’ve failed.??

Although, if your office is at home or you’re not getting together with friends as frequently as you did before, it’s easy to avoid that informal accountability. Whereas, in-person, avoiding the conversation, or the people aware of your goals, can be easily detected.

How Do You Follow Through With Your Goals Without Social Accountability

This is where strategy comes in, and more self-awareness to achieve those goals you committed to at the start of the year.?

When you don’t have that social accountability the choice of your goals becomes that much more important. You must have that personal connection to it in order to be the driving force behind achieving that goal.

Once you have determined that this is the right goal for you, here are four strategies that help you follow through with your goals in 2022:?

1. Allow For Bad Habits To Create Setbacks In Your Goals

Deciding on a goal to achieve also means you’re deciding to give up habits that conflict with this goal, and adopt new habits that support this goal. For that reason, you need to allow for setbacks in your goals. You may have decided to stop drinking alcohol for a month and end up having a beer at the hockey game. That was a habit or behaviour associated with that event. Now you need to build awareness around that habit and interrupt it by consciously choosing a soda instead.

2. Set Up A Structure For Accountability

Being accountable was easier when you had people bringing it up in conversations during your daily routines. But if those conversations are occurring less because your routine has changed, you need to be the initiator to check in with others. Apps you can ignore, but a real live person is tougher to avoid. Make a list of accountability partners who are also working on goals, and arrange to text updates to each other to confirm you are actively working on your goals. By creating a reminder in your calendar to contact your accountability partners you set up a deadline to show results.??

3. Break Down Your Goal Into Manageable Chunks

When you set goals, it’s most likely due to experiencing frustration in your life. You see something that isn’t working and you want to change it. But if that frustration is really high, your goal reflects that intensity, and as a result, you might make the goal too lofty to achieve. Then after a week or two of working on this goal, you realize it’s unachievable. Instead of giving up, break down your goal into manageable chunks. You may have to reduce the number of pounds you’ll lose in one month to something more realistic, or allow for more time and effort to switch to locally sourced purchases. It’s okay to adjust you goals to more achievable levels. You want to see some results so you can stay positive about reaching your goals.

4. Acknowledge When You Need To Shift Your Goal

Sometimes the goal that you commit to is not realistic for your lifestyle, or it could be the wrong goal for you. As you work on your goals there could be this resistance to completing it. You find it really difficult to get up at 5 AM to go jogging with your friend, or calling strangers to sell your product feels really uncomfortable. When instead, you can see yourself going to the gym in the afternoon to lift weights, or attending networking events to meet new people, and this feels more enjoyable.?

Building awareness around what you want to achieve and applying the right goals to achieve that outcome, is?a journey of self-discovery. Once you align with what you want, your goals will require less effort to achieve and you’ll become more easily motivated to work on your goals.?

Christine Hourd is a success and leadership coach located in Calgary, Alberta. She works with professionals and small business owners, in-person and online, to identify the right goals to work on so they see greater success. You can access more information about the?Accountability Coaching Program?on The Success Model website.

This article was originally posted on The Success Model Success & Leadership Life Coaching Blog

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